"Can they not bat anywhere in the lineup?" - Younis Khan wants Babar Azam & Mohammad Rizwan to evolve after T20 World Cup debacle
Former Pakistan captain Younis Khan wants to see senior batters like Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan evolve and adapt to the requirements of modern-day T20 cricket after a poor showing at the T20 World Cup. The Men in Green suffered a shock defeat at the hands of the USA and also lost to India, failing to progress to the Super 8 phase in the process.
Younis also questioned Babar's reluctance to bat at No. 3 from the first game of the tournament as young Saim Ayub had been opening the batting alongside Mohammad Rizwan in the games leading up to the showpiece event.
Speaking on PTV Sports, Younis Khan shed light on the importance of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan adjusting their batting position as per the requirements of the team. He said:
"If the team needs you, you should open or play at number 3. There are some concerns about this team's batting and they should sit down and take decisions about the same. We speak about only 2 batters (Babar and Rizwan), can they not bat anywhere in the line-up? They can, right? They need to enhance only a little, evolve just a little (to improve their power game)."
The opening pair of Babar and Rizwan received a lot of flak from fans on social media and also from several cricket experts for not making the most of the powerplay restrictions.
Younis Khan wants Pakistan to have honest conversations about the failure
Younis Khan also claimed that the only reason former Pakistan cricketers like him are being critical of the team is because they want to see Pakistan do well. He clarified that he was proud of the star players that Pakistan have, but wants the board to strategize the path in the near future so that they could evolve and learn from this setback.
On this, he stated:
"We are proud of Babar Azam, Shaheen and Rizwan as well. They have had terrific achievements in cricket. It is not just Babar Azam's fault, or the coach's. It is everyone's fault. It is not that he did not reach the semi-finals, we as a nation did not. Everyone needs to sit together and make decisions. Don't say that that we do not have white-ball cricket in the next 6 months, so we will take that decision later."
Younis Khan interestingly put forward Fakhar Zaman's name as a potential candidate to replace Babar Azam as Pakistan's white-ball captain. Babar had only recently been reinstated as the skipper by PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi.